


Bored

by sanctum_c



Series: Renegade Endless Summer 2019 - Clarity Flavour [7]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Aerith's Moving Castle, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Art, Boredom, Domestic, Hell House, Multi, Painting, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: It's raining in Rocket Town and Aeris's flower shop has no customers. She needs something to do.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Series: Renegade Endless Summer 2019 - Clarity Flavour [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982017
Kudos: 4





	Bored

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Midsummer Rain'

The appeal of no fixed abode and an incurable wanderlust was the potential of seeing and visiting new places. Meeting new people. Experiencing different climates, cultures and countries. Some would be warmer, some familiar enough, some colder. The first time Aeris travelled the Planet, she spent a lot of time marvelling at weather and temperature variances – a difference to Midgar with its potentially toxic rain and varying degrees of uncomfortably warm.

A lot happened in the interim and various opportunities and revealed secrets allowed Aeris as many attempts at a similar trip as she liked. Potentially for as long as she kept going on this life (was there a limit on the trickery? Could she push to let this repeat into the future? Interesting question). Weather was one of the major uncontrollable elements of the first expedition around the Planet. Sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy, windy, or plain miserable. Never snow on the first trip sadly. Soon rectified after she returned from the Forgotten City.

But somewhere along the line, rain lost its appeal. Fun at first. To let it pour down around her on her first visit to Kalm, know it was nourishing and feeding the plant and Planet life around her. Other days it offered blessed relief from overheating. The world was not a constant procession of new any more. Some weather was nice (the cool of Spring and Autumn especially appealing) though other types remained best avoided (the debilitating heat of midsummer; the shiver-inducing cold of mid-winter, but at least it gave her yet another excuse to curl up with her partners in the warm).

Rain could still be lovely. On occasion. Not today though. Aeris rested her head against the flower-shop window. Rocket Town looked washed out, bleary and grey. Today was the worst rain of all. Not specifically torrential or remotely heavy. More constant, somehow wetter and unrelenting. The rain splattered against the windows, drummed on the roof and kept most people inside, or left them only willing to run rapidly between shelter or flail with umbrellas. Leading to the other issue with today; the heavier winds.

Having a mobile house – especially her childhood home with extensions – like this was wonderful for easy transportation and accommodation. Unfortunately it did not help if they setup somewhere and weather like this happened. No one wanted flowers on a day like today – however much such a gift might raise a smile for a loved one in amongst the grey.

Cloud was likely ready to climb the walls too. Little maintenance work remotely safe to do in this kind of weather. Her breath was fogging the window; Aeris swiped at it with her sweater sleeve. It did not last long; not as if anything so see apart from the same rain-slicked, grey scene from before. Later should have some entertainment at least. A visit from Cid and Shera for dinner. Time to catch-up and enjoy time with old friends again. Unfortunately a number of hours lay in between.

Another swipe, another rapid fogging of the glass. Nope. No way to stay here. She ventured into the main house. Quiet, nothing but the clock ticking. Warmer here. Maybe come back and collapse on the sofa. Easier to keep an ear out for anyone coming into the shop, but the outcome seemed less and less likely. A customer in the bar. An actual customer. She chatted agreeably with Tifa. No sign of Cloud in here – must be upstairs again.

Aeris smiled and waved at Tifa, not wanting to break the flow of conversation. She ventured back into the main house. Strange how rain affected things like this. So much she could do, so much she wanted to do, but the curtailment of the rain induced more of a desire to be outside than the sun did. Okay Gainsborough, something to do. But now here, there was so much. Her current book lay on the table, the bookmark scarcely more than a quarter of the way through. The clock on the VHS player flicked over; a load of tapes containing unseen films and missed TV programs. Magazines piled up from impulse purchases last month.

Paint tin under the stairs. Painting. Been meaning to start for a while now. She could try painting. And paint what? The rainy day outside? She dithered. Not the worst plan. Something to focus on, something to do. There was the blank canvas she bought back in Costa del Sol. The water colours Mom bought her years earlier when she decided she wanted to try. And an easel she found in amongst the scavenged North Corel junk.

Somehow a little too warm in the house. And without a good view of the bleary outside. Was she doing this? Not painting was worse than whatever she might produce. And she needed to begin somewhere. Aeris set the easel and canvas up in her shop and painted her view; the fogged up windows with a hint of Rocket Town beyond.


End file.
